Stimulus generalization of schedule-induced polydipsia.

Researchers gave five rats food every 30 seconds. Each pellet arrived with a tone. The tone pitch changed across sessions. The team tracked how much water the rats drank at each pitch.

They wanted to see if the rats would drink the most when the original training pitch played and less as the pitch moved away.

All rats showed a clear gradient. They drank the most at the training tone and less as the tone got higher or lower. The pattern looked like a smooth hill centered on the training pitch.

This proved schedule-induced polydipsia can come under stimulus control, just like any operant response.

Baer (1974) first showed that timed feeding alone creates excessive drinking. Grosch et al. (1981) now adds that this drinking can be turned on or off by a specific sound.

Locurto et al. (1980) went further. They showed the very same drinking can then serve as reinforcement for new lever presses. Together the three studies trace a chain: food schedule → tone-controlled drinking → drinking that reinforces other behavior.

Falk (1966) and Nelson et al. (1978) both found longer intervals create more drinking. The new study kept the 30-s interval fixed and instead asked, "What else can control the drinking once the schedule has created it?" The answer: tonal stimuli.

You now know that adjunctive behaviors are not blind side effects. They can be brought under stimulus control. If a client engages in stereotypic drinking during breaks, try pairing a unique sound with the break. Then withhold that sound when you want the drinking to drop. The 1981 rat data say the behavior will follow the cue.